MRS TARLETON. [on the steps] Is anything the matter, John? Nurse says she heard you calling me a quarter of an hour ago; and that your voice sounded as if you were ill. [She comes between Tarleton and the man.] Is anything the matter?
TARLETON. This is the son of an old friend of mine. Mr--er--Mr Gunner. [To the man, who rises awkwardly]. My wife.
MRS TARLETON. Good evening to you.
GUNNER. Er-- [He is too nervous to speak, and makes a shambling bow].
Bentley looks in at the pavilion door, very peevish, and too preoccupied with his own affairs to pay any attention to those of the company.
BENTLEY. I say: has anybody seen Hypatia? She promised to come out with me; and I cant find her anywhere. And wheres Joey?
GUNNER. [suddenly breaking out aggressively, being incapable of any middle way between submissiveness and violence] I can tell you where Hypatia is. I can tell you where Joey is. And I say it's a scandal and an infamy. If people only knew what goes on in this so-called respectable house it would be put a stop to. These are the morals of our pious capitalist class! This is your rotten bourgeoisie! This!--MRS TARLETON. Dont you dare use such language in company. I wont allow it.
TARLETON. All right, Chickabiddy: it's not bad language: it's only Socialism.
MRS TARLETON. Well, I wont have any Socialism in my house.
TARLETON. [to Gunner] You hear what Mrs Tarleton says. Well, in this house everybody does what she says or out they go.
GUNNER. Do you suppose I want to stay? Do you think I would breathe this polluted atmosphere a moment longer than I could help?
BENTLEY. [running forward between Lina and Gunner] But what did you mean by what you said about Miss Tarleton and Mr Percival, you beastly rotter, you?
GUNNER. [to Tarleton] Oh! is Hypatia your daughter? And Joey is Mister Percival, is he? One of your set, I suppose. One of the smart set! One of the bridge-playing, eighty-horse-power, week-ender set!
One of the johnnies I slave for! Well, Joey has more decency than your daughter, anyhow. The women are the worst. I never believed it til I saw it with my own eyes. Well, it wont last for ever. The writing is on the wall. Rome fell. Babylon fell. Hindhead's turn will come.
MRS TARLETON. [naively looking at the wall for the writing]
Whatever are you talking about, young man?
GUNNER. I know what I'm talking about. I went into that Turkish bath a boy: I came out a man.
MRS TARLETON. Good gracious! hes mad. [To Lina] Did John make him take a Turkish bath?
LINA. No. He doesnt need Turkish baths: he needs to put on a little flesh. I dont understand what it's all about. I found him trying to shoot Mr Tarleton.
MRS TARLETON. [with a scream] Oh! and John encouraging him, I'll be bound! Bunny: you go for the police. [To Gunner] I'll teach you to come into my house and shoot my husband.
GUNNER. Teach away. I never asked to be let off. I'm ashamed to be free instead of taking my part with the rest. Women--beautiful women of noble birth--are going to prison for their opinions. Girl students in Russia go to the gallows; let themselves be cut in pieces with the knout, or driven through the frozen snows of Siberia, sooner than stand looking on tamely at the world being made a hell for the toiling millions. If you were not all skunks and cowards youd be suffering with them instead of battening here on the plunder of the poor.
MRS TARLETON. [much vexed] Oh, did you ever hear such silly nonsense? Bunny: go and tell the gardener to send over one of his men to Grayshott for the police.
GUNNER. I'll go with him. I intend to give myself up. I'm going to expose what Ive seen here, no matter what the consequences may be to my miserable self.
TARLETON. Stop. You stay where you are, Ben. Chickabiddy: youve never had the police in. If you had, youd not be in a hurry to have them in again. Now, young man: cut the cackle; and tell us, as short as you can, what did you see?
GUNNER. I cant tell you in the presence of ladies.
MRS TARLETON. Oh, you are tiresome. As if it mattered to anyone what you saw. Me! A married woman that might be your mother. [To Lina]
And I'm sure youre not particular, if youll excuse my saying so.
TARLETON. Out with it. What did you see?
GUNNER. I saw your daughter with my own eyes--oh well, never mind what I saw.
BENTLEY. [almost crying with anxiety] You beastly rotter, I'll get Joey to give you such a hiding--TARLETON. You cant leave it at that, you know. What did you see my daughter doing?
GUNNER. After all, why shouldnt she do it? The Russian students do it. Women should be as free as men. I'm a fool. I'm so full of your bourgeois morality that I let myself be shocked by the application of my own revolutionary principles. If she likes the man why shouldnt she tell him so?
MRS TARLETON. I do wonder at you, John, letting him talk like this before everybody. [Turning rather tartly to Lina] Would you mind going away to the drawing-room just for a few minutes, Miss Chipenoska. This is a private family matter, if you dont mind.
LINA. I should have gone before, Mrs Tarleton, if there had been anyone to protect Mr Tarleton and the young gentleman.
TARLETON. Youre quite right, Miss Lina: you must stand by. I could have tackled him this morning; but since you put me through those exercises I'd rather die than even shake hands with a man, much less fight him.
GUNNER. It's all of a piece here. The men effeminate, the women unsexed--TARLETON. Dont begin again, old chap. Keep it for Trafalgar Square.
HYPATIA'S VOICE OUTSIDE. No, no. [She breaks off in a stifled half laugh, half scream, and is seen darting across the garden with Percival in hot pursuit. Immediately afterwards she appears again, and runs into the pavilion. Finding it full of people, including a stranger, she stops; but Percival, flushed and reckless, rushes in and seizes her before he, too, realizes that they are not alone. He releases her in confusion].
Dead silence. They are all afraid to look at one another except Mrs Tarleton, who stares sternly at Hypatia. Hypatia is the first to recover her presence of mind.
